Bet On an Orange Julius
by Scrawlers
Summary: Apollo and Athena had counters just like everyone else—counters that ticked down until the day they met the person who would somehow end their lives. The problem is, their timers hit zero when they met each other. [Apollo/Athena]


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Ace Attorney or any of its properties.

**Notes: **This was written forever ago and posted to Tumblr. In an attempt to update this account with some things, I decided to post it here. For anyone who doesn't know, an Orange Julius is a type of smoothie made with orange juice.

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><p><strong>Bet On an Orange Julius<strong>

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><p>It happened as he pushed the police officer off him and she jogged over to pull him to his feet. The second her hand met his she released him again, her eyes widening as the hand that had previously wrapped around his palm snapped to her opposite wrist. Likewise, the hitch in his breath she heard—that little, surprised hiss hidden behind suddenly clenched teeth—likely had little to do with the spill he'd taken when the officer had landed on him.<p>

For a moment, the two stared at each other, blue eyes on brown. Then, with trepidation that he could see on her face and she could hear in his breathing, they rolled their shirt sleeves up as one. Identical weals laced the insides of both of their wrists:

_**00:00**_

"That . . . just hit zero for you, didn't it," he asked, though there was a fearful resignation in his voice that told her he already knew the answer to that question. She nodded.

"Yep. I'm guessing the same goes for yours?"

"Good guess," he said, and he yanked his shirt sleeve back down. Athena let out a shaky, forced laugh.

"Well . . . at least it wasn't the cop that did it. That would have been an embarrassing way to die."

Apollo raised an eyebrow, and in spite of himself, he smiled a little wryly. "Embarrassing for you or me?"

Athena shrugged, and returned his wry grin. "Both, I guess."

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><p>Most of the time, it was easy to ignore the timers, and when they did remember them, they tried to make a game out of it.<p>

The good thing about being attorneys was that they were faced with death every day, and the better thing about working at the Wright Anything Agency meant that they were faced with bizarre, dangerous situations that most attorneys at other, saner law firms didn't have to worry about. This meant that Apollo and Athena could, as morbid as it was, make bets about which case it would be that would do them in. It wasn't the _yokai _case, so maybe it would be the one that took place at a carnival, or the one that took place on the set of the Pink Princess remake, or the one that involved a millionaire and his mysteriously crashed plane.

"This will be the one that does it," Athena said, and she jabbed a finger at the hologram Widget had conjured up, containing the details of their newest case. "I'll bet you an Orange Julius on it, Apollo. This is it."

Apollo looked over her shoulder and scanned the screen, taking in the details about the priest that was killed while walking home. "Nah, you're on. This one looks normal compared to the stuff we usually deal with."

"Are you kidding? There's totally something spooky going on here. Jinxie would be terrified." Athena deactivated Widget's hologram as Apollo rolled her eyes.

"Jinxie's terrified of her own shadow. That means nothing. But tell you what: if this case kills us, I'll buy you an Orange Julius."

Athena grinned. "Hope you have your wallet ready in the afterlife, Apollo."

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><p>When Clay Terran died, neither of them said anything about the timers, though they were both acutely aware of the numbers under their sleeves.<p>

Apollo wondered if, when Athena's guilt was revealed, if he'd snap and kill her right then. Athena wondered, as he proclaimed her guilt to the courtroom, if she'd accidentally kill him defending herself.

Neither happened, and when her innocence was proven and they left the restaurant celebration that night, they held not each other's hands but each other's wrists, their fingers wrapped around the timer of the other.

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><p>Years passed. Each time they had a case that was the least bit weird, Athena added another Orange Julius to Apollo's growing tab. Apollo tried arguing that this wasn't fair, that Orange Juliuses didn't stack just because she didn't win her bets, but Athena countered that he only said that because he knew she was right and so he rolled his eyes and let her have her way.<p>

He would have bought her the entire Orange Julius restaurant chain if it would have meant her not being right.

As was par for the course for any attorney at the Wright Anything Agency, they did enough investigative work to earn them the title of "consulting detectives" as much as their badges earned them the title of "lawyer." Unfortunately, being consulting detectives (however unofficial) carried its risks; and during a case that they were working together but had decided to temporarily split on to cover more ground, Athena found herself tailed back to the office by the murderer, and he had friends.

She was on the phone with him when the attack happened. He was across town at the precinct, waiting for Ema to come back with the evidence files he needed. All he could do was listen as she struggled, squeeze the phone and will her to, _come on, fight them, tiger_, but no matter how much he prayed and no matter how much he shouted, the outcome was the same and he wasn't there to help her.

It was enough. He couldn't concentrate on the case and their client was found as guilty as Athena was dead. Her funeral was quiet and small and when it was over, Apollo left his wedding ring and badge on her gravestone.

It had been his idea for them to separate, after all. She had offered to go to the police station with him, and he had refused. He was the reason she was dead. He didn't deserve to keep practicing law, not after that.

Besides, he had work to do.

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><p>"Apollo, let me defend you."<p>

"I said no, Mr. Wright. The agency is struggling enough with only one attorney as it is. You don't need to take on a guilty client."

"You're not—" Mr. Wright closed his mouth at the look on Apollo's face, and his eyes darted quickly to the right before they looked up at him again. He was lying, or about to. Apollo waited to see if Mr. Wright would lie to himself, or if he'd try to pass it off right to Apollo's face. "I can prove you aren't guilty. Having one of our own attorneys get twenty-five to life for murder won't exactly look good for the agency either, you know."

"I killed three people in cold blood," Apollo said, and Mr. Wright's lips pressed together, the muscles around his eyes contracting. "That's three counts of murder in the first degree. I'm pretty sure this exceeds twenty-five to life. I'm not going to make it out of this one."

Mr. Wright was silent for a moment, simply watching him. Then he swore and looked away, and the oath was so quiet that Apollo only caught it by reading his lips.

"You're not lying," Mr. Wright said quietly, and it was only then that Apollo noticed Mr. Wright seemed to be squeezing something in his suit pocket. "Damn it, Apollo, why aren't you lying?"

"They killed her," he said simply, and Mr. Wright looked back at him, expression inscrutable. "They knew she had the evidence to put away DellaToro for good, and they killed her for it. They strangled her and stabbed her and left us a message on the office floor in her _blood. _And as if all of that wasn't enough, DellaToro wasn't prosecuted for the original murder, or for Athena's murder. Our client got put behind bars and Athena ended up _dead_, for nothing." Apollo sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, glaring at Mr. Wright as if it were his fault, even though Apollo knew it wasn't. "That's why I did it. The law wouldn't punish him, so I did."

"Mr. Justice?" Apollo turned to see a guard in the doorway behind him. "Visiting hours are over." Apollo turned back to Mr. Wright, who was staring at him with a clenched jaw and (though Apollo was pretty sure he had to be wrong about this) what looked to be the beginnings of tears.

"Well, this is it." Apollo rose from his chair, and on the other side of the glass, Mr. Wright did the same. "If I don't see you during the trial tomorrow, then . . ."

"I'll be there," Mr. Wright said, and despite everything, Apollo smiled a little. "Don't be surprised if I'm there as your attorney." That took the smile off Apollo's face, and he rolled his eyes.

"I already said I'm not going to let you defend me. They'll give me a state appointed attorney, Prosecutor Blackquill or whoever will rip them to shreds, and it'll all be over before lunch."

"We'll see. I have connections in the prosecutor's office, you know," Mr. Wright said, but instead of dignifying that with a response, Apollo just shook his head and walked toward the door, where the guard was waiting. When he reached it he paused and looked back, unsurprised to see that Mr. Wright was still there, even if he'd looked away.

"Wait—Mr. Wright," he said, loud enough for the speaker embedded in the glass to catch his voice. "There's one more thing I forgot to say."

Mr. Wright stopped, and looked back toward the glass. "Yeah?"

"You asked me why I wasn't lying—why I did it. Everything I said before was true—is true—but there's one more thing I forgot to add." Apollo grinned and pulled back his shirt sleeve, and Mr. Wright's cheeks went ashen at the sight of the quadruple zeroes on Apollo's wrist. "I still owe her an Orange Julius."


End file.
